The Grenada gazette., 1887-11-05
L.iFE.SAvDNG SERVICE,
The Good That Has Been Done by the
Guardians Of Our Coasts.

the GOOD Th0t Has Been Done by the
Guardians Of Our Coasts.
The Government at Washington has
just issued the customary volume en-
bracing the acts and the progress OF
the Life Saving Service for the last Off
cial year. The report is striking and
valuable. 1t shows, to begin with, that
at the close of the time covered there
were 211 life-saying stations upon our
sea and lake coasts; that 1922 disasters
befell documented vessels during the
year; that on board these vessels were
| 2,726 persons, and that 1909 were
saved Of that number and 27 lost.
These statistics of the immediate past
are accompanied by . vast collection Of
others Of comprehensive and instruct
i've character. A general summary nf
the latter shows that since the intro
duction of the present system, Novem-
Der l, 1871, to the close of the fiscal
year, June so, 1886, the total number of
disasters has been 1886; the total value
of vessels wrecked, $50, 7S3, 495; the to-
tai value Of cargoes, $l8,643,754; the
total value, therefore. Of property in
volved, $5S,377, 249; the total value of
property saved, Sal, 9,257; the total
value of property lost, $l6,927, ,992; the
total number of persons involved, 49,
0S3. and the total number Of lives lost
4s6. This exhibit speaks for itself. It
offers ratio Of salvage of property in
shipwreck in vivid contrast with the
figures of days gone by. But the dis
parity in the saving of life is more re-
markable still, and on this ground
alone, in the absence of any other, the
existence of the Life-Saving Service is
abundantly justified. 1t should be re-
membered that the results we have
broadly presented have been reached in
a cumulative manner. At first, in the
season Of 1912, the service was
limited to the coasts of Long Island
and New Jersey; in 1894 this was ex-
tended so as to take in Cape Cod; in
1910 the whole coast of New England
was added, and the range between
Cape Henry and Cape Hatteras; in
1906 the coast from Cape Charles to
Cape Henlopen was included, and in
1867 all the foregoing, together with
the east coast of Florida, were en-
braced, with portions of that of the
lakes; while all this during the past six
years has been augmented by the. coast
1f Texas. Most of US remember the
,agerness which we first read Of "Ship-
wrecks and Disasters at Sea-" The
pages of the present report have the
same attraction and add to it the inn
Mediate contemporaneous clement that
goes so far to heighten interest. Here
ire tales Of courage, of devotion, of
that no romance can
'qual. Here are passages of adj
'enture, or perilous 'scapes, of mo-
nents when but a thread or plank is
between human life and destruction;
passages that make one hold ones
'reath and marvel that such scenes in
cores have been and constantly recur
lmost in our sight, but which are only
ully realized when thus described to-
ether in all the eloquence of simple,
nvarnished narration. The practical
7orth no less than the nobleness of the ,
'ife-Saving-Service has been made
lear. 1t is hardly needful to
oint out the good that is done /,
y the spectacle of heroic deeds, !
ut we may usefully invite all Ameri- q
ans to acquaint themselves with the /
articulars of one of the grandest t
ranches OF their public service, the $
'creased efficiency of which assuredly t
etokens that growth of civilization u
'hich goes hand in hand with the II
rowth of the spirit of humanity. (
!. Herald.
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